Tom Boyd has claimed Scottish football needs neutral referees to stop Celtic stars being booted off the park.

In a wide-ranging attack on Scotland’s top match officials, the former Hoops skipper cited incidents involving Brendan Rodgers ’ team which he insists are proof our current Grade One whistlers can’t cope with games involving his club.

Boyd is convinced not enough protection is being given to the Champions and that inconsistency is favouring other clubs after a weekend of further refereeing controversy where Andrew Dallas awarded Rangers four penalties and Celtic had claims waved away by Willie Collum involving Oliver Burke, Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard.

Now Boyd insists it’s time to bring in officials from abroad.

Oliver Burke has his penalty appeals turned away after being tackled by St Johnstone's Jason Kerr in the box (Image: SNS Group)

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“Players are not afforded protection. I’ve said it on Celtic TV on numerous occasions – challenges go unpunished from opposition players on Celtic players.

“I recall Ryan Bowman on Kieran Tierney, I can recall Jason Holt on Patrick Roberts where we had a two-footed challenge from behind and no foul given.

“We tried to address it. I believe the club are still looking for answers from the Old Firm derby game in December.

“It’s something we need to sort right away and the only solution I can see is to bring in neutral referees because the ones we have at the moment cannot handle the games.”

Boyd is adamant Celtic’s title race has also become a battle to overcome refs’ decisions which he claims are loaded against his club.

He said: “If things are to even themselves up then I would need to wait about 100 years.

“You see the decisions given, particularly at the weekend, where stonewall penalties were denied for us where in another game the incident was outside the box yet it was given.

“It brings us to what Jock Stein said: ‘we need to be better than referees’.

“Sometimes that can be very difficult. Inefficiency and incompetence, it could be any referee at this moment in time.”

The former Scotland defender also delivered an astonishing attack on whistler Collum for his display during Celtic’s win at St Johnstone and branded the recent SFA summit between match officials and managers a waste of time.

He said: “I was surprised it wasn’t a penalty after Joe Shaughnessy’s reckless challenge on Edouard.

Odsonne Edouard of Celtic is stretchered off (Image: Getty Images)

“I recall Collum sending off James Forrest at New Douglas Park for a slightly less reckless challenge so there’s no consistency in Mr Collum’s refereeing in a lot of Celtic games.

“That seems to be a massive problem just now.

“In whose opinion is Collum the best referee in Scotland? UEFA’s opinion?

“There were two penalty kicks in the same incident. Christie was tackled on the chest. The Burke incident was also a penalty as you can’t go through the player to play the ball.

“The summit meeting does no good whatsoever when you see in one weekend the decisions which are unjustifiable.

“The standard of refereeing is at an all-time low. Their interpretation is different from other European referees.”